Which cheap Chinese DAC?

TheMarlin · Unread post by **TheMarlin** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 9:58 am

I keep hearing a lot here about the ‘cheap Chinese DAC’.

I want to try a few out, see how they stack up against my Toppings D30 and D50, with a view to building a Raspberry Pi Streamer at some point....

Had a quick look online, lots to chose from. Which are the good ones? Anyone got a link?

Toskink and digital coax would be good, not so fussed about USB.

Thanks

Marlin

CN211276 · Unread post by **CN211276** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 11:21 am

I am in a similar position having recently upgraded to Sky Q. The box does not have phono sockets so I can no longer connect directly to my P90SA. There is an optical output which I have connected to the Mscaler and it sounds rather good on You Tube. The problem is that it will not play anything where the source is the satellite dish. I therefore require a DAC between the Sky Q box and pre amp. The Topping D30 looks very attractive as I would not want anything bigger or costing more.

Unread post by **Fretless** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 12:14 pm

For a start DO NOT get one of these.

Cheapy Chinese DAC with remote. Gave up after a week and never worked again. No refund. Useless.

This (or similar) is probably the device you're thinking of:

Very basic DAC, which will work best with a 5V LPSU like this:

A very nice PSU - I have one.

What I use here for running the sound on the TV is a TeraDak V2.7 on a Toslink connection to the TV and outputting to a pair of active computer speakers and an old Sony Subwoofer. Very pleasant-sounding NOS DAC.
Sounds just great fot TV usage.

But, in all honesty, you cannot beat the Topping D30 (even without the optional LPSU) for terrific sound and unbelievably low price.
I have one in my office rig and it is phenomenal, plays everything (including DSD) and has a handy, front-mounted input selector switch (TeraDak have them on the back).

slinger · Unread post by **slinger** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 2:27 pm

The other way to go is... if you have a spare pair of speakers knocking around at home, - let's be honest, who hasn't?

- the SMSL Q5 is a good bet. It's a combination of Amp and DAC and even has separate "out" for a sub. I use mine for computer duties, along with an old pair of Celestion DL4 s2 speakers and a little 8" sub but I know a couple of guys who use the Q5 for their TV sound and are very happy with the quality. You can get one (in black or silver) on Amazon for £118.99 or you should be able to find one for about £100 on eBay.

Unread post by **karatestu** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 2:56 pm

Off topic alert.

Slinger, how come you were never seduced by the lure of the NVA cubes ?

slinger · Unread post by **slinger** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 4:15 pm

karatestu wrote: ↑Sat Mar 07, 2020 2:56 pm Off topic alert.

Slinger, how come you were never seduced by the lure of the NVA cubes ?

Positioning, pure and simple. My speakers have to be wall-mounted downstairs, and more or less "near-field" upstairs, neither of which would suit the cubes.

_D_S_J_R_ · Unread post by **_D_S_J_R_** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 4:56 pm

The dac-for-a-fiver has been made in several internal versions I think and I was shocked when I realised mine dated from 2012... Although it looks the same externally, the innards definitely aren't from what limited stuff I've seen! I'm assuming the modern cheap versions may well be better and perfectly ok for red-book standard of replay but nothing greater than this. For USB based decoding these days, it seems the pukka (not the similar looking copy) Topping D10 is just fine, the D30 model adding two extra inputs for still under a ton. Modern dacs seem more supply-immune, so any changes by adding a humongous linear supply may be personal rather than actual these days, if you see what I mean.

I've never tried it, but a good 'Pi streaming system package is the 'PecanPi' I'm told, which does the job in a nicely balanced way. Worth looking up if nothing else.

Unread post by **savvypaul** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 6:34 pm

_D_S_J_R_ wrote: ↑Sat Mar 07, 2020 4:56 pm Modern dacs seem more supply-immune, so any changes by adding a humongous linear supply may be personal rather than actual these days, if you see what I mean.

Which modern dacs have you tried, yourself, with and without LPSUs?

Daniel Quinn · Unread post by **Daniel Quinn** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 8:22 pm

Dsjr, you are not going to get away with a wholly term like 'modern dacs' on hs. Leave such meaningless abstractions to audio addicts.

Stemcor1990 · Unread post by **Stemcor1990** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 9:18 pm

The answer to the original question is probably “the cheapest”.

On the Docs advice I spent the princely sum of £5 on a Chinese dac. On it’s own it’s ok I suppose but nothing special. Add a £40 linear psu and the little box is transformed into something quite nice. It gives my Teddy Pardo dac some serious competition and I suspect that if I was using a smaller NVA power amp than the TSS I would be struggling to hear the difference.

The nearest I can get to an analogy is comparing an A20 with the TSS which are the only NVA amps I have listened to over a sustained period of time.

The dac and psu are currently sitting in a cupboard pending a possible second system at some point in the future.

If anybody wants to listen to these items then I’m happy to send them out on loan. I think I can trust the HFS massive on this one

Please pm me if you are interested.

Which cheap Chinese DAC?

Which cheap Chinese DAC?

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